Paper 2 Section B British Depth Study:

Medieval England – the reign of Edward I, 1272-

1307

Summary Booklet

29. Edward I overview and background

30. Henry III’s legacy and Edward’s character

31. Development of government, rights and justice

32. Life in Medieval England – part 1

33. Life in Medieval England – part 2

34. Development of the legal system

35. Medieval warfare

36. Edward and Wales

37. Edward and Scotland

38. How should we remember Edward?

Revision Sheet 29 Edward I Overview and background

Edward I, known as Longshanks because of his height, was named after Edward the Confessor and ruled from 1272-1307. His father, Henry III, had been a weak king, with Simon de Montfort having effectively ruled briefly from 1264-1265. Much of Edward's reign was taken up by expensive wars in Wales and Scotland. Edward made efforts to listen to complaints, tackle corruption and make the law accessible to all. In the C13th sheep were becoming more profitable and villeins were increasingly able to become freemen. The Church was a great landowner and was a powerful and wealthy influence throughout Europe. The wool trade, particularly with the Low Countries, made many merchants rich. Towns such as London, Winchester, York, Lincoln and Norwich were growing. Life was freer in towns, but diseases such as tuberculosis spread quickly in unsanitary conditions. Most people lived in poverty, eating bread and pottage, whilst the rich regarded vegetables as poor people's food.

Revision Sheet 30 Henry III’s legacy and Edward I’s character

After being punished harshly, most of the barons who had rebelled against Henry III had been allowed redemption - buying back confiscated land with money borrowed from Jews.

Edward went on an unsuccessful crusade, accompanied by some former rebel barons in 1270.

In 1267 and 1270 the clergy and lay members of Parliament respectively granted Henry III taxes in exchange for promises to listen to their grievances.

The 1267 Treaty of Montgomery had brought peace between England and Wales as Henry III recognised Llewelyn ap Gruffudd as the Prince of Wales.

When Henry III died in 1272 no-one disputed Edward's succession, so he didn't return from crusade until 1274.

Edward spoke French, Anglo-Norman, Latin and English and had been married to Eleanor of Castile since the age of 15.

Edward's reputation as a youth was being selfish, arrogant, high-spending and supported by up to 200 like-minded knights.

Edward's part in the defeat of Simon de Montfort in 1265 had enhanced his reputation as a soldier and leader.

Edward was deeply religious, founding a Cistercian Abbey to thank God for surviving a particularly rough crossing of the English Channel.

When Edward was crowned in 1274 expectations were high for both reform and strengthening of royal authority after Henry III's divisive reign.

Revision Sheet 31 Development of Government, rights and justice

On becoming King Edward set about investigating abuses of power by officials such as sheriffs.

Lists of complaints known as the Hundred Rolls or Ragman Rolls were compiled.

Edward's most important official was probably Robert Burnell, who became Chancellor in 1274.

Edward's first Parliament of 1275 was attended by up to 800 barons, knights, bishops, abbots and burgesses.

Parliament passed the 1275 Statute of Westminster which dealt with many of the abuses listed in the Hundred Rolls and established the 'Hue and Cry'.

The 1278 Quo Warranto enquiry led to the crown taking land from people who couldn't prove they were entitled to it.

The 1279 and 1280 Statutes of Mortmain stopped the Church gaining land without paying taxes to the crown.

Further grievances were dealt with in a second Statute of Westminster and the Statute of Merchants, both in 1285 and concerning the right to collect payments from London Bridge.

Parliaments usually met twice a year and in 'Model Parliament' of 1295 the Commons met separately from the Lords for the first time.

Parliament knew they had the King in their grasp as he needed them to grant taxes to pay for his wars.

Revision Sheet 32 Life in Medieval England- Part 1

• England was becoming a cash economy as landowners

increasingly rented out their land and paid wages.

• By 1300 25% of rural families rented or owned enough land to

support themselves.

• The biggest driver of change was the wool trade, with an estimated

12 million sheep in England by 1300.

• Towns grew, and many new ones were established by the King,

Lords of the Manor and the Church during Edward’s reign as they

were a good way to make money from rents, tolls and land sales.

• Overcrowding and poor sanitation were common, but efforts were

made to clean up towns, such as by building pavements and

limiting numbers of pigs roaming the streets.

• In 1275 Edward’s first Parliament agreed to tax every sack of wool

passing through London and other ports 7s 6d.

• Edward borrowed vast amounts of money from Italian bankers,

using customs duties on the wool trade as security.

• In 1279 Edward called in old coinage and introduced groats,

halfpennies and farthings, making £25,000 profit in the process.

• A 40 shilling wool tax was imposed in 1294, removed after much

protest in 1296, then re-imposed in 1303, but only for foreign

merchants.

• Laurence of Ludlow was a very rich wool merchant who built

Stokesay Castle.

• One of Edward’s most popular acts was expelling the Jews in

1290.

Revision Sheet 33 Life in Medieval England- Part 2

Cathedrals and churches dominated the landscape in medieval

cities, towns and villages.

There were around 33,000 priests, 15,000 monks and nuns and

5,000 friars – a new type of monk who travelled and preached.

The Church controlled Oxford and Cambridge universities, owned

20% of the land of England, had their own law courts and helped

the king run the country.

To reduce time to be spent in Purgatory, people went on

pilgrimages, such as to the Holy Land or Canterbury, Glastonbury

or Walsingham in England.

There was a huge growth in the numbers of monasteries, abbeys,

nunneries and hermitages.

Monasteries were important as places of learning and care for the

sick.

The preaching of Dominican and Franciscan friars made

Christianity more accessible and helped to reinvigorate the

Church.

Franciscans helped to develop the universities, with Science and

Medicine being added to the curriculum of Rhetoric, Logic,

Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music for the 3000 students

at Oxford by the 1290s.

Roger Bacon was a Franciscan friar who found errors in Aristotle’s

teachings and compiled his Opus Maius – an encyclopedia of all

known science.

Duns Scotus – or John Duns – was a Franciscan who became

famous for the depth of his thinking and the theory of the

immaculate conception.

Revision Sheet 34 Development of the Legal System

Edward inherited a system with weak royal authority, ineffective

law enforcement, inconsistent trials and punishments and large

numbers of outlaws.

Edward did not make major changes to the manor or ‘leet’ (village)

or borough courts.

In 1294 Edward introduced the local Assizes, with judges regularly

visiting each area to deal with cases promptly.

Edward reinforced the role of royal courts – the King’s Bench and

the Court of Common Pleas.

Edward introduced allowing people to petition Parliament for

redress of grievances.

Separate Church courts, with a reputation for lesser punishments

continued.

The 1278 Statute of Gloucester included making it easier to

recover alienated land and allowing offenders to apply to the King

for a pardon.

The 1285 Statute of Winchester included each town having to

have night-watchmen.

Also, everyone had to keep weapons appropriate to their income,

ready to join the ‘hue and cry’.

Edward introduced harsher punishments, including the death

penalty for stealing goods worth more than 12 pennies.

Despite reforms, corruption remained a huge problem, and crime

increased during economic hardship at the end of Edward’s reign.

Oyer and Terminer and the 1305 Ordinance of Trailbaston were

introduced to further crack down on criminality.

Revision Sheet 35 Medieval Warfare

Edward was fascinated by and modelled his behaviour on the

legendary King Arthur.

Knights were expected to have a warhorse, armour and a sword or

lance.

Cavalry were well armed and highly-trained men on horseback –

Edward had 800 from his household with him at the Battle of

Falkirk.

Armour would depend on wealth – chainmail for the richest,

hardened leather for others.

Cavalry would be identified by wooden shields bearing coats or

arms.

Edward recruited up to 20,000 infantry – archers and foot soldiers

– but desertion was common as pay became increasingly

unreliable.

The Scots developed a technique of forming schiltroms to protect

against cavalry charges.

Edward used specialists such as woodcutters, smiths, engineers

and miners to support his armies.

Edward became skilled at feeding and supplying his armies, such

as by employing 3,000 people to harvest grain when he captured

Anglesey in 1277.

Sieges could be long and costly, using machines such as battering

rams and trebuchets.

Tournaments became so dangerous that in 1292 the Statute of

Tournaments banned pointed weapons and allowed only

authorised combatants to carry arms.

Revision Sheet 36 Edward and Wales

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd had acknowledged Henry III as his overlord

but was given the right to rule wales by the 1267 Treaty of

Montgomery.

But Llewelyn refused to attend Edward’s coronation or pay dues to

him as overlord.

In 1277 Edward, supported by Marcher Lords, invaded Wales and

forced Llywelyn to accept him as overlord in the Treaty of

Aberconwy.

Llywelyn was left only in charge of Gwynedd, with other Welsh

land given to his brother Dafydd as a reward for having supported

Edward.

The English ruled in a high-handed fashion and Edward built or re-

built a string of castles designed to hem Llyewelyn in.

In Easter 1282 a Welsh revolt began when Dafydd attacked and

destroyed the unfinished castle at Hawarden.

Edward was infuriated, attacked wales again, killing Llywelyn and

having his head displayed on a spike at the Tower of London.

Dafydd continued to resist, but was captured and killed in 1283.

The 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan established English rle and tax-

collecting throughout Wales.

English control was reinforced by Master James of St George

building further castles, including Conwy and Caernarvon.

Revision Sheet 37 Edward and Scotland

After the death of Alexander III in 1286 and his grand-daughter

and heir, Margaret, Maid of Norway, in 1290, Edward was asked to

decide who should be King of Scotland.

Of 14 claimants, John Balliol and Robert the Bruce the Fifth had

the best claims.

Edward picked Balliol, but Balliol pay homage to him, and

demanded money and troops from the Scots to fight the French.

In 1295 the Scots deposed Balliol, replacing him with 12

guardians.

The Scots made an alliance with France and attacked northern

England.

Edward’s armies defeated Scots in battle at Berwick, Dunbar and

Stirling Castle in 1296.

Edward left Scotland in 1296 with royal officials ruling Scotland on

his behalf and placing huge demands on the Scots.

William Wallace led a Scottish rebellion against English rule.

Wallace defeated the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in

1297, becoming sole Guardian of Scotland.

In 1298 Edward decisively defeated the Scots at Falkirk, though

Wallace escaped and scattered Scottish forces remained in control

of parts of the country.

Edward led a further invasion of Scotland in 1304, with most Scots

submitting to him by February and John of Brittany being put in

charge of the government of Scotland.

In August 1305 Wallace was betrayed, tried, hanged, drawn and

quartered.

Robert the Bruce the Sixth led a further rebellion in 1305, and was

crowned King of Scotland.

Edward was on his way to counter a further rebellion against

English rule of Scotland when he died in 1307.

Seven years after Edward’s death, Robert the Bruce decisively

defeated the English at Bannockburn in 1314, ensuring Scotland’s

independence.

Revision Sheet 38 How should we remember Edward?

Edward can be remembered as a family man, devoted to Eleanor

with whom he had 15 children before her death in 1290.

He also had three children by his second wife, Margaret.

He built ‘Eleanor Crosses’ at each of the 12 places Eleanor’s body

rested overnight before her funeral in Westminster Abbey.

He named his daughter born to Margaret in 1305, Eleanor.

Edward gained a reputation as a brave and fearless fighter and a

good general.

He seemed to have learned from his father, Henry III’s failures in

battle.

He planned and prepared meticulously for his battles in Wales and

Scotland.

In the first part of his reign law and order improved and trade

prospered.

Later in his reign he was preoccupied by wars and criminality

increased.

He also increasingly came into disputes with his Parliaments and

was forced to re-issue Magna Carta in 1297 and 1300.

Poor harvests, a decrease in the wool trade and expensive debts

meant he was deeply in debt by his death in 1307.

Edward was the first medieval monarch not to face civil war,

possibly because of his military success, possibly because of

concessions he made to barons.